


Current Approaches to Interpretation in Archaeology

by Aramley



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-27
Updated: 2011-01-27
Packaged: 2017-10-20 15:19:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/214153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aramley/pseuds/Aramley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Archaeologist AU! Dr John Watson, forensic archaeologist, is introduced to Sherlock Holmes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Current Approaches to Interpretation in Archaeology

"It's tent city, I'm afraid," Lestrade says, gesturing over at the rows and rows of tents. "Will that be alright with your -?" He pauses delicately, eyes flicking downwards.

"Oh," says John. "Oh, it's - it should be fine. Been in worse."

"I can imagine," says Lestrade."

 _No_ , John doesn't say. _You can't_. He adjusts his grip the walking stick.

"Well," Lestrade says, into the strained silence. "I'm sure we can sort you out with something a bit better tomorrow, but until then we've only space left in a two-man, and the bloke you'll be sharing with is - well, he's - "

"Doctor," someone shouts, and John starts before he realises that the call was for Lestrade, not him. The man rushing over takes no notice of John, skids to a halt in front of Lestrade all alight with righteous fury and spits out, "He's _touching things_ again."

"Anderson," Lestrade sighs, with the world-weary exasperation of a harassed parent. "Can't you get along for five minutes?"

"It's not _me_ ," the man who is Anderson snaps. "It's _him_. He's not supposed to be touching things, I've told him, but he never listens."

"Alright, alright," Lestrade sighs, holding one hand up to cut off Anderson's tirade. "I'm on my way. Come on," he says to John, with a vaguely embarrassed and apologetic look. "You can have a look at the finds tent while I scold the children."

-

They are barely inside the tent when the very pale, thin young man bent over a long trestle-table of bone fragments holds up a hand and says, "Before you say anything, look, I've got gloves, I'm following protocol, leave me alone."

"Sherlock," Lestrade says, and John is surprised to hear the imploring tone in his voice, but more surprised still when Sherlock responds with a brusque, imperious, "Shush, you're distracting me," and Lestrade, incredibly, shuts up.

"What are you thinking?" Lestrade asks, at last, and he sounds actually deferential, John thinks.

"Hm," Sherlock says, distant. He holds a bone fragment up to the lamp. "I'm thinking we've got a Roman cemetery, probably in use from the late third century to the mid fourth, that's straightforward enough; boring really - what's interesting is this intrusive group - " he picks up another bone fragment and holds it next to the first, "- hm, immigrant population, two or three generations at least, probably originally from a single family, definitely intermarrying with native Britons. Arrived in Britain sometime in the 290s - 310s at a push - from the continent; can't be sure where of course but I'm fairly certain we're seeing something from the middle Danube region, probably Pannonia."

"That's ridiculous," says Anderson, in the stunned lull that follows. "That's - "

"A simple interpretation of the facts, I assure you," says Sherlock, dismissively, without looking up. "Anyone could do it, if they only used their brains. Well, probably not you, Anderson."

"Is he off again?" comes a new voice, and John turns to see a pretty young woman, her arms full of a tray of bagged pottery, which she settles into a stack of similar trays.

"This is Donovan," says Lestrade. "Post-doc in -"

"Babysitting freaks," Donovan says, without sighing or rolling her eyes but nonetheless managing to convey the same sense of enormous disdain with one eloquently curled corner of her mouth.

"You realise I'm going to have to spend my grant on the therapy I'm going to need after this?" she continues, turning to Lestrade.

"Therapy? Who needs therapy," Sherlock scoffs. "If you want someone to tell you what's wrong with you, Donovan, I'd be more than happy to help."

"Anyway," Lestrade says, before things can escalate. "Sherlock was just explaining his latest theory to us."

This time, Donovan does roll her eyes.

"Well, as I said, it's simple, really. The grave goods in the burials date from the late third century, there's some pottery that's dated fairly securely and a coin of Diocletian, that gives us a terminus post quem; the latest in the series. These are inhumation burials, not cremations, which as we all know indicates different traditions, beliefs - a separate origin, then? Indicated also by the grave furnishings - beads, buckles, all sorts - including these animal belt buckles which are not attested in Britain but - does anybody want to guess? No? - Pannonia, where they are found in association with similar burial rites. But the graves later in the series here show greater range of grave goods, more native items, so then a dilution of the original culture over time: assimilation, most probably hastened by intermarriage."

"That's brilliant," John says, and doesn't entirely realise he's said it out loud until everyone is staring at him. Including Sherlock.

John meets the look: dark, curious, assessing. Pleased, in some cautious, shy way.

And then Donovan, silky smooth and cutting, says, "Shall we give you two a minute?"

"Don't be coarse, Donovan," Sherlock says, shuttered again, glacial. "It doesn't suit you. No matter what Anderson whispers in your ear when he takes you around the back of the Port-a-Loos."

"You little shit," Anderson snaps, as Lestrade says, "Sherlock," and Donovan wheels on Anderson, snarling, "You and your _big mouth_ ," before she spins again on the heel of her Cath Kidson welly-boot and flounces out of the tent.

"You - you - " Anderson sputters, rendered incoherent with anger.

"Careful, Anderson," Sherlock says, attention already narrowed again to the bone fragments in his hands. "Wouldn't want you to strain something."

Anderson shoots a hunted look at Lestrade before he slinks, defeated, out of the tent. John probably ought to feel more awkward about the tense work environment than he does, but the overriding feeling is one of amusement and admiration. Sherlock's barbs are cool and targeted and impersonal as sniper fire. He likes Sherlock better than either Anderson or Donovan already.

"So, unfortunately this is Sherlock Holmes," says Lestrade, after a moment. "Sherlock, this is Doctor John Watson. He'll be working on the bones."

"Pleased to meet you," says John, a pleasantry Sherlock doesn't return. The laser burn of Sherlock's attention shifts to John: his dark eyes sweep head-to-toe before he turns away again, leaving John measured and dismissed. John's leg twinges; he shifts.

"I'm sure you'll find this a pleasant change of pace, Doctor," Sherlock says, with that off-hand tone that John already understands means that his full attention is focused elsewhere. "After Afghanistan."

 _Afghanistan_. Another pain shoots unexpectedly through John's leg, and this time when he adjusts his weight Sherlock looks up. John avoids his even, unflinching gaze.

"You told him about me," he says instead to Lestrade, not a question.

"Sherlock," Lestrade sighs, not an answer. "Don't scare off another one."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," says Sherlock, standing. He snaps his gloves off one at a time, with a dry little curl of his mouth that is, John guesses, Sherlock's smile. "This one's not easily scared. Are you?"

And before John can answer Sherlock is brushing past in a haze of impractically flowing dark wool coat, calling over his shoulder, "Oh, Doctor Watson, I'll be sure to make some room in the tent for you."

In his aftermath, John looks at Lestrade.

"Not a word," Lestrade says. "And before you ask: yes, he's always like that."

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Title is from [Reading the Past: Current Approaches to Interpretation in Archaeology](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reading-Past-Approaches-Interpretation-Archaeology/dp/0521528844) by Ian Hodder.  
> 2\. The military does sometimes use forensic archaeologists to identify grave sites - however, I do not know if they were used in Afghanistan.  
> 3\. The site and Sherlock's conclusions are based on the excavations at the Lankhills cemetery, Winchester. A very brief overview of the issues surrounding the site can be found [here](http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=537).


End file.
